Bellevue property owners won’t see an increase in their tax bills next year, but they can expect to pay much higher fees for sewage and garbage if the borough council approves the proposed 2011 budget.

Council currently is planning to approve a change in the borough’s sewer surcharge from a flat rate to one based on usage. That change will result in a dramatic increase for most property owners.

Property owners now pay a flat $19 per quarter to the borough’s sewer fund, created to finance sanitary sewer repairs mandated as part of an administrative consent order (ACO) several years ago. The mandates are designed to eliminate the ongoing problem of raw sewage being released into area waterways during times of wet weather, when rain water overwhelms the sanitary sewer system and ALCOSAN’s capacity.

The usage-based fee under consideration in Bellevue would charge $3 per 1,000 gallons of water used. For the average property owner using 15,000 gallons of water per quarter, that will mean a 31.79 percent increase in their quarterly payment, according to the borough’s calculations. For those using 30,000 gallons of water per quarter, the increase will be nearly 50 percent.

The fee will be charged along with the quarterly ALCOSAN fee. With administrative fees added, the borough estimates payments from the 15,000 gallon users will go from $88.08 per quarter to $116.08, and for the 30,000 gallon users, from $148.68 to $221.68 per quarter.

Director of administrative services Doug Sample said that he believed the change in the surcharge would pull in an additional $300,000 next year, for a total of just over $600,000 that should be going to the borough’s sewer projects.

How that money actually will be spent, however, is the subject of some debate in council chambers.

The sewer fund budget calls for $150,000 to be transferred into the borough’s general fund to compensate the borough for labor and equipment used in sewer projects. Sample, however, said that his only basis for arriving at that figure is his prior experience as a borough manager in Crafton. He could not say how much time public works employees would spend on sewer projects in 2011. He estimates that about $100,000 will go toward labor costs. That amount equals about one-quarter of the total amount allocated for public works salaries next year.

The equipment-related reimbursements are seen as being somewhat disingenuous by several members of council. Sample estimates that $50,000 will be used to compensate the borough for the use of DPW equipment on sewer projects at the going rate charged by private contractors -- $50 per hour for a dump truck, and $100 per hour for a backhoe.

“We’re billing people for equipment they’ve already paid for,” said council member Linda Woshner, noting that Bellevue tax dollars already had been used to purchase the very same trucks and machines.

Council member Jane Braunlich said that, essentially, “we’re renting the equipment back to ourselves.”

Sample said that he saw the issue as more of a bookkeeping one that allowed the borough to more accurately depict what was being spent on sewers. He said that in 2011, laborers will keep special time sheets for sewer-related work and equipment use, and that would be billed back to the sewer fund. The general fund reimbursement will be based on time and equipment actually directed at sewer projects, and may not necessarily be the entire $150,000 in the proposed budget, he said.

Of the roughly $600,000 allotted to local sewer projects, about one-third -- $227,980 -- is budgeted for the correction of sewer line defects under the terms of the ACO. The borough will pay $75,000 towards the bond repayment and $20,000 towards a loan to fix the West Bellevue Station sewer mandated by the Allegheny County Health Department. Another $60,000 will go for engineering fees, $20,000 to lease cameras, and $10,000 for the separation of combined sewers also mandated by the ACO.

Sewage won’t be the only fee increase in 2011. Garbage bills also will increase, from $159 to $190 per year. Sample said the increase will cover a contract price hike for next year, as well as to cover the people who are not paying their garbage bills. In the past, Sample said, Bellevue has been taking in less money than it must pay Waste Management.